I see that only 13 people ordered the Hype T and that they need 10 requests to revive the item for sale.
As the T is intended to assist in marketing the product, I suggest that you sell it at a loss. It puts your logo out in front of the people.
But a mysterious unknown logo doesn’t do anyone any good. Add the words “Hype” or a five-word tagline focusing on the concept of empowerment as well as “tumult.com” and these shirts will drive some business. Only 13 people love Hype enough to spend $19.95. Other than to make 13 people happy, this was totally not worth the effort. Knock it down to $9.95 (or less) and make a big deal out of promoting it on your site you’ll get a couple hundred of these out the door. Can Tumult afford $1K or so to promote Hype? Might be worth it.
Marketing is all about spending money to make money. T-shirts are great, but they are more about team spirit than driving revenue.
Multicolor embroidered T’s are cheap - $7 plus $25 setup and shipping. Screened T’s are around $4 - $5 more expensive because of the setup. In circumstances where a shirt is an effective tool (college crowd and such), it’s worth it to take a limited hit.
I would say that targeted web display web ads are the best bet for Tumult, but it takes administration for the best results. There is a good chance that with the right design 1 in 100 would have a chance at remembering the name and around $50 in clicks would result in one $50 sale (break-even, plus the benefit of non-click exposure).
My number one suggestion would be that they come up with a video ad - something that truly dazzles and hits perhaps five key points - not a demonstration of the app but something simply to get people excited. If there are consumer-oriented keywords attached, there’s a good chance that it can drive a fair amount of sales to dabblers and neophytes.
Yeah, we did the t-shirts because Team Tumult wanted them and we also sent some to some especially helpful beta testers/users as a thank you. T-Shirts generally aren’t great for marketing because they aren’t targeted at all. About the only place they really make sense for an app like Hype is San Francisco or to hyper-target ares where there’s a large design presence.
Marketing overall is something we could definitely use more work on - I appreciate your thoughts!
Hi Jon - This is T.Y. This is my home account rather than my work account.
You have a great resource available to you that very few businesses have - your users (who are a devoted bunch) are creatives, many of whom have some level of experience in brand promotion. They like the product, they enjoy using it, and they get off on the cool things that they can create with it. In essence, they receive the most important thing possible from any form of provider/consumer relationship: Empowerment and the gratification that comes with it.
You have an enthusiastic and skilled customer base who can provide you with what you need to build the brand.
I wonder what would happen if you were offer some sort of prize for a winning Hype movie - something that hits key points that you designate, that is a tour-de-force demonstration; not a features list, but something that shows prospective customers that they can be empowered to create extremely cool stuff. Perhaps the final product can be assembled from individual scenes or compositions within symbols - something you could mix and match to create an ultimate tour de force.
It would be great if you could find a dozen or more Hype gurus, all of whom would receive credit and their URL in the end credits and, once the project is completed, have them jump onto social media to promote it. If there were a way to tailor it for virality, that would be a home run - leaving the plug until the end: “made with Tumult Hype / bullets one, two and three / tagline / URL”
If the contest approach seems iffy, how about contacting some of your most talented customers and commission them to collaborate. Toss in a couple of people who are creative thinkers / storytellers and knows how to hook viewers with an engaging visual story so that the JS / backend people can get their teeth into it. Could be fun and very productive.
Thanks for your thoughts! I think a contest would be fun - maybe something where winners could get a free ticket to the Hype Conference, among other prizes. Content made with Hype is a pretty wide field, but I'm thinking an infographic might be the most interesting since it can be used for other purposes as well.
